


Now it's my time to depart and I just had a change of heart

by Dylanobrienisbatman



Series: Echo Positivity Week [4]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Comfort, Episode: s04e13 Praimfaya - Time Jump, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Grounders in space, Understanding, discussion of prejudice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-14
Updated: 2018-11-14
Packaged: 2019-08-05 17:27:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16371941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dylanobrienisbatman/pseuds/Dylanobrienisbatman
Summary: The Ring is loud, and Echo misses silence, but silence means death up here. Her first day on the ring was full of fear, and once the day ends, she finds herself at a window, staring at the only home she'd ever known as it burned below her.Emori joins her. They talk about earth, and what it meant, and Echo learns that banishment alone is not enough to make up for her past.





	Now it's my time to depart and I just had a change of heart

**Author's Note:**

> Echo Positivity Week Day 4  
> Prompt: Time Jump Headcanon
> 
> First day on the ring, staring down at earth.

The oxygen on the ship rattled. The noise was deafening, and it never stopped.

Not that Echo wanted it too.

It had been less than a day on the Ring, but it felt like a millennia.

She hadn’t strayed more than a few feet from the vents pumping the stale air into the ship.

Raven had told her that it was fine, that the vents were everywhere, and that the ship had been full of air within a less than an hour of them turning them on.

She didn’t trust it. She didn’t trust the idea that her oxygen was coming from a source that could stop at any moment.

So she stayed put.

It’s not like they needed her help anyway.

Bellamy and Harper had carried Monty off to look at his hands, and Raven had employed Murphy and Emori to help her start finding useful stuff that was left up here in this ring.

No one even bothered to look her way.

The flitted around her for hours, calling to each other through the echoing metal halls, yelling about things she had never heard of, and didn’t understand.

She sat next the vent, taking deep breaths, listening to the deafening rattle that told her she could keep on living, at least for now.

Bellamy came by after what must have been almost a whole day, although she wasn’t sure how she’d ever keep track of time up here. No seasons. No sunrise or sunset.

He held out a pack of rations.

“This is what we’ve got for a while, until Monty can get the algae growing. It was enough for eight people to eat for 2 weeks, so now that….” He cut off, with a choked noise, and she just nodded.

“We might need to spread it out, so start out by just eating two a day, alright?”

“Okay.” She whispered. She realised she hadn’t spoken all day. Her lips had to be peeled apart to get the sound out.

Bellamy just nodded curtly, and walked away.

She ate slowly, and she only ate about half. She wasn’t hungry. She kind of felt like throwing up, if she was honest. She wrapped the ration back up in the plastic, and slipped it in her radiation suit pocket.

Already doing a great job at rationing her rations.

The business died down, and everyone else wandered off to sleep, and she just sat by the vent for a while longer, until her legs stood up and started carrying her somewhere, without her permission.

She found herself in front of a window.

Of course, she thought. At least her subconscious knew what to do.

She needed to see it. She needed to know that the world was truly gone, so that she could get with the idea that she would be up here, with these strangers, until further notice.

She had to have proof.

She sat in front of the window, and stared out over the fire below.

The whole planet was covered in it. Burning, swirling fire, smoke, and clouds of ash, and huge barren expanses of desert. The ocean had dried up in the flames.

The trees and plant life had been incinerated, leaving nothing behind but sand and ash.

Earth was dead.

For some reason it made her breath a little easier. Like this guarantee that if she wasn’t up on this metal ring she’d be dead on the ground was some sort of solace.

A noise behind her made her jump.

Emori.

She didn’t look like she wanted to speak, and she pulled her left hand behind her back, as if hiding it from view would make it disappear.

She was afraid of Echo, she realised. Afraid of what Azgeda had always done to _frikdreina_. Afraid she would do it now.

But Echo was Azgeda no more, and Emori had no reason to fear her.

“ _Yu nou na rid op?_ ” She asked

“ _Nou. Ai on gaf in ai op._ ”

“ _Ai seintaim_.”

Emori sat down at the window, more than an arms width away.

Out of Echo’s reach.

They sat, and just stared.

Stared at the only world they had ever known.

Stared at the fires that had over taken their home.

“I am sorry you were banished.” Emori said, never looking away from the window. The words were kind, but Emori’s voice was cold and hard. Showing kindness as a way of ensuring her own safety. Less likely to be killed if you are kind to your killer.

“I am sorry you were banished too.” Echo said.

Emori whipped her head over.

“What?”

“You were also banished, as an infant, yes?” Emori nodded, an anger burning in her eyes. “I am sorry our people did that to you. From what I saw today, you are strong and smart. Any clan would have been lucky to have you.”

“My parents were _yugledakru_.”

“A strong clan. Good warriors.”

“I am not _yugledakru_.” She spat, turning back to the window.

“And I am not _azgeda_.” Echo said, a heavy sigh following the words.

“But you were.”

“Yes.”

“You were banished for your choices, I was banished for being born a stain. These are very different.” Emori said, her voice still angry but almost tired now.

“Yes, I know.” Emori turned again, she like she was shocked Echo wasn’t putting up a fight.

Even if she had the energy, this was not a fight she would win.

Emori was right.

“Grounders in space.” Emori said, pensive.

“We were not meant for this type of place.”

“Speak for yourself.” She muttered.

“What?” Echo said. “How can you feel safe here? No earth beneath your feet, fake air being given to us by machines we cannot control? This is the most dangerous place I have ever been.”

“This is the safest place either of us have ever been.” Emori countered. “Raven will take care of the machines, and we will get used to the metal. But for me? I am here with John, and there is enough food, enough space, I don’t have to fight to survive here. That is all i’ve ever known. I’m sure you are the same, _azloufa_.”

“Yes.”

“We won’t have to fight here. We can eat, and sleep, and learn new things, and maybe make these people our friends. We are safe here.”

“You are safe here. You came with one of them. I am an enemy.”

“Yes, you are.” Emori said, nodding, staring back out at the fire. “But five years is a very long time to be alone up here, just seven of us. I think you will find forgiveness.”

“You do?”

“I think fromRaven you will not have to try. I think Harper is the kindest, so her too. Monty as well. It’s a start.”

“What about you, and Murphy, and Bellamy?” She asked.

“Bellamy, I dont know.” She answered, stopping.

Echo looked over at her.

“and you, Emori?”

“Your people killed people like me for just existing. Not just Azgeda, all of you. I was thrown out as an infant, like someone’s trash.”

“I know. But I did no-”

“If you had had a child like me, would you have left your clan with her, or would you have thrown her out, or killed her?” Emori asked, her voice steady but her face full of anger.

“I-“

“If you don’t know your answer immediately, then you know why I will never trust you. I do not need to forgive you, _Echo kom Azeda_. You caused me no harm. But this,” She said, lifting her left arm up, still wrapped in a thick clothe, but clearly large and mangled, “This ensures that we will never be friends.”

“I would never hurt you or-“

“Oh I know. And even if you wanted too, they would not let you. I do not fear you, Echo. I think part of me does, in the way that prey fear predators in the wild, but my more evolved mind knows you are no threat to me. But that does not change the fact that your prejudice against me exists. You would see this before you see me.” She gestured to her hand again. “And that is enough.”

Echo didn’t have any response to that, so she just sat quietly.

“I do understand why you are here at this window though, Echo.”

“You do? If you hated the earth so much, how can you?”

“I did not hate the earth, Echo. I hated people. I hated the people treated me like an animal. But the earth? The earth I love. It kept me alive. It fed me, gave me water, the earth is what brought me John.”

“The earth was the only thing in my life I ever know would always be there for me.”

“Me too.” Emori whispered.

They sat, two Grounders, the most different they could possibly be, and yet here they were.

Together in space, staring at the world as it burned below. Their relationship to the earth the same, if for completely different reason.

“We should pay our respects.” Echo whispered.

“Do you know any way to do that?” Emori asked.

“A grounder prayer, and the warriors goodbye?” Echo asked.

Emori just nodded.

“Should I say it?”

“Well, I do not know the words to the prayer.”

“Right. Okay.” She said

She looked out over the barren planet, her heart aching for the feel of dirt beneath her toes and the wind in her hair, the smell of pine and the sea.

“ _Hofli graun en flauw na gon won. Medo en keryon, kirken sonraun an branon. Oso graun, yu gonplei ste udon._ ” She whispered. It felt silly, almost, giving the warriors goodbye to the earth.

But she had fought her way back from the last great destruction, and now she was gone again. She had fought, and it was over.

Echo thought maybe the earth deserved that prayer most of all.


End file.
